DJ Rob Ford: Toronto's mayor drops some beats at fundraiser for local musicians at downtown nightclub

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appears to have enjoyed a busy gold-medal weekend. After learning how to drop a beat for charity at a club downtown on Saturday, Mr. Ford joined the massive early morning crowd rooting for Canada during the gold-medal hockey game in Sochi.

Bars were granted special permission to serve alcohol this weekend to honour the closing days of the Olympic games, which included the all-important hockey finals. Despite the 7 a.m. start of the showdown between Sweden and Canada, several bars were packed to capacity.

Among them was Real Sports Bar and Grill in Toronto, where Mr. Ford was witnessed watching Canada’s 3-0 triumph over Sweden.

Mr. Ford took a break from the jumbo screens only to pose with his fans.

“This is what Canada’s all about — it’s hockey right? When people say how do you define Canada, I say, wait until there’s a hockey game,” Mr. Ford said.

After the bar, Mr. Ford was swarmed by ecstatic Team Canada fans in nearby Maple Leaf Square. He was seen biting on a fake Gold Medal, having beer shoved into his face, and walking groin-first into a yellow fire hydrant.

The hockey game was Mr. Ford’s second public appearance in a matter of hours; the night before he attended a South by Southwest fundraiser for Toronto artists.

After a lesson from local music producer Memorecks, Mr. Ford took to the stage. Videos quickly circulated around social media showing the mayor’s attempts to master the DJ’s art.

The DJ, also known as James Peck, said the mayor showed a particular talent for music-making, although he considered the experience “surreal.”

“He was excited to get going, pushing buttons and getting sounds coming out, essentially,” he told the Post. “It looked like he was having a lot of fun. The whole room was very upbeat, it was a very positive experience generally.”

Mr. Peck said Mr. Ford was particularly adept with his hands.

“He had some really quick fingers on the beat pads there. Usually when people start off they go really slow, but Rob was just going at it and he had really fast hands. His technical skills impressed me.”

Mr. Peck said that with practice, Mr. Ford could best him at dropping beats in the future.

“He could kill me in terms of sheer speed and skill if he kept it up,” the DJ said.

“I went down to Austin and saw how successful it was, how many jobs it creates, how it stimulates the economy,” Mr. Ford told CP24 at the event. “We have so many amazing musicians in this city that aren’t being recognized and we’re going to make sure they’re recognized around the world and we’re going to bring a music festival up to here.”

Related

There has been speculation that Mr. Ford’s frequent club appearances are aimed at courting the youth vote.

The mayor handed out “Ford Nation” shirts outside Gravity Soundbar in the Entertainment District earlier in the month and dozens of photos posted online showed him inside the bar with his arms around young people. The mayor said at the time that he was at the bar for friend DJ Tony Monaco‘s birthday.

“It was a great bar, people treated us like gold,” Mayor Ford said on Z103.5, a Toronto Top-40/dance music station where Monaco works, the next morning.

He appeared on the radio station for about 30 minutes, where he was lobbed a number of questions that allowed him to speak uncontested on the gravy train, subways, the media and many of Ford’s other favourite subjects.

But Mayor Ford appeared to be making a concerted effort to promote himself to the youth of Toronto.

“[I] support the youth. I’m really out there, I can relate to the youth,” he said. “We’re going to have a ton of youth out for the campaign.”

Ford encouraged young people to campaign for him because it would “look good on their resume” and “they can get jobs.”